MILT

jayboy, on 2012-05-27 14:51:06, said:

The only people who must accept it as being a major contributory factor are those desperate to legitimise in some way the antidemocratic violence and destruction that went on.

rixalex, on 2012-05-27 10:48:05, said:

Why should PAD be disbanded? It's a free country and it is completely entitled to hold rallies if complying with the law.What is more its origins, leaving aside the issue of its unsavoury and authoritarian minded leadership, seem quite honourable - a middle class reaction against Thaksin's meglomania and the tyranny of the majority.The fact that it was ruthlessly exploited by the unelected elites is of course unfortunate, as was the increasingly thuggish and violent element among its younger followers.Once it had served its purpose it was muzzled: the unelected elites no more like yellow unpredictability than they do red unpredictability because both represent potential destabilisation of the status quo.If it is unleashed again it will be a calculated step by the elite to warn Thaksin not to overreach himself - all part of the great behind the scenes negotiation.If those Chinese grannies, thugs and weirdos now assembling in modest numbers think they are in control they are sadly mistaken.

geriatrickid, on 2012-05-27 09:26:50, said:

You ask for people to offer opinions on something but then give very little of your own, besides the usual and tiresome frothing mouth comment that you ascribe to anyone who doesn't support the corrupt clowns that you do. Seems like none of you red cheerers are capable of posting anything these days without the obligatory "froth" mention. Was a group memo sent around or something?

PAD should have been disbanded long ago. Serves no purpose whatsoever other than to try and create further social division. Everyone outside of either camp, red or yellow, is just so tired of it all. Reconciliation begins the day these two groups cease to exist, and not a day before.

Thai at Heart, on 2012-05-25 14:06:33, said:

I feel the same way after reading your post.  A lot of words saying little and a lot of lame excuses trying to prop up Thaksin's fable that he is not part of the elite and is a self made man.  It is a fact that he is a man born in to immense wealth and social power, descended from the hereditary rulers of the Kingdom of Chiangmai and part of an extremely influential and powerful family.  His father was a member of parliament, a position he secured because he was a wealthy member of the elite.  Thaksin raised his clan from millionaire to billionaire precisely because of his connections within the elite, connections he had access to because of who he was.  All of these doors would have been closed to him if he had been a normal person.  He has both supporters and opponents among the elite and opposition to him isn't based on who he is, he is undoubtedly part of the elite, but what he is and what he has done.  He hasn't changed anything, rather he is strengthening the rule of the elites and bending the other elites to his own will.  Which is precisely why I refer to all these naive red shirts like the guy in the OP as useful idiots, because that is all that they are to Thaksin.  They are useful tools that he uses to cement his own political position.  Now that they are no longer useful they will be discarded.  They may moan and whine a bit but without access to Thaksin's checkbook they have no power and will be ignored by almost everyone.

DP25, on 2012-05-25 12:50:49, said:

His father was a powerful man in Chiangmai, but in terms of influence Chiangmai has always been the second city. Something befell the family wealth and he has rebuilt it.   He became a policeman, which isn't the traditional way to a position of "power" in the country, that is reserved for army.  His education was only overseas after university (as opposed to the very top who send their kids out of the country very young), his money was made from being paid by the "people" as opposed to building something strategically valuable and long lasting  that could be termed as benefitting the country i.e. CP.   His business wasn't founded on a generational model, to pass from generation to generation, it was seen as not being of "long" term benefit to the country.  

I haven't met many of the so-called elite, but I went to school with a few and have met their families here. Very yellow,  pro-monarchy, extreme wealth, well educated, but know how it works here and accept the status quo.  Maybe you can say wealth wise, Thaksin was nominally part of the elite, but in terms of being accepted by the real power brokers in Bangkok, I think not.  I am well acquainted with one old money family that was TRT, but has distanced themselves from the core of PTP because of the fear that the change Thaksin was bringing went beyond just politics.

The rumours about him being tipped off about 97 have been around for ages, and it took down some of the older money in Bangkok buy he survived.  Maybe my seeing him as an outsider, is more to do with the Bangkok bunch basically resenting him for being in the know when they weren't.

I don't think we can deny that his TRT/PTP bunch was of a younger more modern industry type, media, telecoms, construction, differently from the traditional old bunch and I have always believed we have seen a Thai/Chinese business turf war fold out in front of our eyes under the guise of politics. Yellow/Democrat/Army insiders versus the upcoming opportunistic  industrialists, slimy old school opportunistic politicians with the reds in tow for support.  He almost outsmarted them all, and Thailand is a different place because of it.  The changing of the guard would have happened eventually anyway, it just would have taken longer.

After a lot of reading, I don't see much to change my opinion.

birdpooguava, on 2012-05-25 11:27:24, said:

Yes Birdpooguava, but the funny thing is...he is one of YOUR opportunists LoL!  I find it amazing when faced with criticism of your dearly beloved from the red shirts themselves, that you are still unable to change your direction. It all seems reminiscent of a species on a famous film franchise. "Resistance is Futile" star date 3959 - Borg Commander.

louse1953, on 2012-05-25 12:28:31, said:

It sounds genuinely interesting. Could you share some of the thoughts and feelings the people at the meeting had.

lovetotravel, on 2012-05-25 11:50:19, said:

I think you don't understand how a "class" system works.  One of the very reasons  that Thaksin got himself into this position is that he wasn't an accepted part of the existing upper class elite in this country.  You have to be granted entry, play by the rules, become part of the woodwork, appear to serve the country and work in the interests of the elite to be part of the upper class elite.  It is a very cosy club, and money is not the only arbiter of entry.

If you don't, you find yourself, very quickly find yourself in Dubai.  No amount of cash can buy instant acceptance at the top, not in Thailand, nor other parts of the world with similar systems.  He is at best "Hi-so", not upper class.

Mosha, on 2012-05-25 06:23:40, said:

Actually, from what I gather, the elites hate his guts.. They don't consider him an "Elite", although he does consider himself one.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

The diehard members of the Thaksin Fan Club won't change their spots. Those who can see the bigger picture will. But its the diehards that can cause the most trouble. Thaksin and the other leaders know that the kwais are easily manipulated and they still (and will continue to do so) form a considerable army that can cause mayhem when and where they like and then use Thaksin and his PR people (such as that disgusting Robert Amsterdam) to rewrite history. Even Thaksin is not sure where he himself stands. 'I'm out of politics', 'Thaksin thinks ......' etc etc etc. Shifting sands. If you look at his contradictory statements over the years you can see he is an idiot and people like Amsterdam recognise this and simply pump him for all he's worth as he's a good earner for these guys.
As for democracy, Thai's have no idea what this word, or concept, means. The fundamental basis of Democracy is the rule of law. Without the rule of law, or respect for the law, there can be no democracy. Burning Bangkok, looting shops, accusing the Abhisit government of things about which they were not responsible, constant lies and corruption - even smaller things like all the reds I saw here in Chiang Mai riding their motorcycles without helmets whilst on their way to some rally, proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the reds are as far away from understanding democracy as you could possibly be. And that's the way Thaksin wants it to be. If only they understood .........................

DP25, on 2012-05-25 10:50:30, said:

And let's hope the trend spreads...... as rapidly as possible please.

Hilarious how all these former Useful Idiots of Thaksin's are now shocked, SHOCKED, that they have become Useless Idiots now that Thaksin is done with them.

looping, on 2012-05-25 06:39:25, said:

Sombat is merely reflecting the new views of many red shirts.  They are finally seeing Thaksin has been using them all along.  We know this time would eventually come.  Congrats to Thailand!!

I think there is a little confusion here - I would doubt very much that all or maybe even any of the television sets currently sold in Thailand would have a DVB-T2 receiver, as the decision has only just been made to adopt that standard for the country.

The confusion I see is that perhaps people may think that a TV set with HD is the same thing - it is not - they are two different components altogether.

The screen is the part you watch (obviously) and that is the bit that displays an HD picture (usually 16:9 or maybe 14:9 aspect ratio - the ratio of screen width to screen height). Virtually all the modern sets currently on sale in the country do have this capability - to DISPLAY an HD picture, and that usually also means that they have HDMI or component inputs that will accept an HD video signal - thats why you can watch the HD set-top box from True or watch an HD DVD etc.

The part of the TV set that actually RECEIVES the digital signal from the broadcaster is a different thing - it has to perform basically the same function as the True set-top box - it actually receives the digital broadcast, and then selects the channel you wish to watch, and decodes it into an HDMI or component (or whatever) VIDEO signal and that is then displayed on the screen exactly the same as if it was connected to a DVD player or the True STB. The receiver must be designed to receive the specific type of signal and to be able to decode the channels within that signal.

So to sumarise - the TV set has two main parts, the receiver and the display. On most TV sets they have a receiver built in (and it suits the current type of transmission in that country). The display can be set to see the picture from the in-built receiver (usually analogue in most TVs at present), or an external input (often HDMI) to connect to say the True STB.

I would expect that Thailand will end up with various low-cost Set Top Boxes specificaly for receiving the DVB-T2 broadcasts - in the same way as happens in the UK and Australia. These will connect to an external input to the TV set.

During the changeover period, you still have the analogue transmissions for a certain amount of time, and in say a couple of years, when the majority of people have had time to buy the new digital receiver box, or have replaced their TV with one that has the digital receiver inside it, then the analogue transmissions are shut down (the government then can re-allocate those frequencies for other purposes).

Welcome to the outside world Aung San Suu Kyi, you truly are a giant among politicians.

Maybe Bangkok will go Gaga over a real Lady.

tinfoilhat, on 2012-05-24 10:46:26, said:

If you make them just a little bit shorter, you can get six out of an A4 sheet.